Critics of the U.S. press view with alarm the shrinkage in the number of dailies: only 117 U.S. cities still have competing daily newspapers, v. 689 37 years ago. This week the critics could point with pride to Phoenix, Ariz., a monopoly town where competition had now been restored.
The competitors, John and Anna Roosevelt Boettiger, had hit Phoenix 14 months ago on the rebound from Hearst's Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which they had operated for eight years in a New Dealing and un-Hearstlike manner (TIME, June 25, 1945).
With their Hearstwhile earnings the Boettigers had bought newsless shopping papers in both...